The NFL is littered with athletes who do boneheaded things in life, but when they go home, they're just Dad to their kids. When it comes time to judge them, being a good father might be their saving grace. But former Cincinnati Bengals linebacker Nathaniel Webster took the most sacred of trusts and smashed it on the ground. He slept with his kids' babysitter.
Wait, scratch that. He allegedly raped his kids' teenage babysitter after using the excuse that he needed a sitter for his kids to get her to come to his house. The 15-year-old girl was the daughter of one of his friends from the Bengals, a former assistant coach (thereby breaking yet another sacred bond ... coach to player), and police say Webster threatened her with a gun to keep her quiet about the "relationship."
Note the quotes around relationship. He was a 31-year-old man (allegedly) having sex with a 15-year-old over a period of several months. And he kept a gun out so she would be too afraid to talk about it. That's not a "sexual relationship," that's rape. Rape of a girl lured to his house with the promise that she'd be babysitting a man's kids.
And this man calls himself a father? Granted, he does have seven children with four (count 'em) different women. That's an indication that he's a relationship jumper, but I try to be open-minded. I know plenty of folks who left one bad marriage to go on to another. They love their kids from each marriage, and take care of them all.
But the one-time Super Bowl champ proved he has no respect for the sanctity of childhood when he violated a teenage girl. And he shows he has no respect for his kids when he used them to lure his victim to his home.
Webster is now facing charges of sexual battery, gross sexual imposition, and five counts of unlawful sex with a minor. Here's hoping they lock him away for a good long time!
Image via elvertbarnes/Flickr